Highlights of Rail & Transport Budget 2021-22 of Government of India

New Delhi, India (Urban Transport News): The Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman announced several measures to augment rail and road infrastructure in the Union Budget 2021-22 presented in the Parliament today.

Budget Summary

• Indian Railways has received a record outlay of Rs 1,10,055 crore, of which Rs 1,07,100 crore is for capital expenditure.
• An enhanced outlay of Rs 1,18,101 crore has been provided for the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, of which Rs 1,08,230 crore is for capital, the highest ever.
• A new scheme will be launched at a cost of Rs 18,000 crores to support the augmentation of public bus transport services. 

Railway Infrastructure

• National Rail Plan for India - 2030 (NRP-2030) to create a 'future-ready' railway system by 2030.
• Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) and Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) to be commissioned by June 2022 to bring down the logistic costs thereby enabling the 'Make in India' strategy. 
• 100% electrification of broad gauge routes will be completed by December 2023.
• The Sonnagar – Gomoh Section (263.7 km) of Eastern DFC will be taken up in PPP mode in 2021-22. Gomoh-Dankuni section of 274.3 km will also be taken up in short succession.
• Future dedicated freight corridor projects namely the East Coast corridor from Kharagpur to Vijayawada, East-West Corridor from Bhusaval to Kharagpur to Dankuni, and North-South corridor from Itarsi to Vijayawada will be undertaken. Detailed Project Reports will be undertaken in the first phase.  
• 100% electrification of Broad-Gauge routes will be completed by December 2023. Broad Gauge Route Kilometers (RKM) electrified is expected to reach 46,000 RKM i.e., 72% by end of 2021 from 41,548 RKM on 1st Oct 2020.
• Introduction of the aesthetically designed Vista Dome LHB coach on tourist routes to give a better travel experience to passengers. 
• High-density network and highly utilized network routes of Indian railways will be provided with an indigenously developed automatic train protection system that eliminates train collision due to human error.

Urban Rail Infrastructure

• Government plans to deploy two new technologies i.e. ‘MetroLite’ and ‘MetroNeo’ to provide metro rail systems at a much lesser cost with the same experience, convenience and safety in Tier-2 cities and peripheral areas of Tier-1 cities.
• A total of 702 km of the conventional metro is operational and another 1,016 km of metro and RRTS is under construction in 27 cities.
• Rs 4,472 crores allocated to the Delhi-Meerut RRTS project. In 2020, Rs 2,487 crores were allocated to NCRTC for this project.
• The budget proposed Central counterpart funding to:
  1. Kochi Metro Rail (Phase-II) of 11.5 km at a cost of Rs 1,957.05 crore.
  2. Chennai Metro Rail (Phase –II) of 118.9 km at a cost of Rs 63,246 crore.
  3. Bangalore Metro Rail Project Phase 2A and 2B of 58.19 km at a cost of Rs 14,788 crore.
  4. Nagpur Metro Rail Project Phase-II and Nashik Metro at a cost of Rs 5,976 crore and Rs 2,092 crore respectively.

Urban Infrastructure/Public Transport

• Raising the share of public transport in urban areas by the expansion of metro rail network and augmentation of city bus service.
• A new scheme will be launched at a cost of Rs 18,000 crore to support the augmentation of public bus transport services.  It will facilitate the deployment of innovative PPP models to enable private sector players to finance, acquire, operate and maintain over 20,000 buses. 
• The scheme will boost the automobile sector, provide a fillip to economic growth, create employment opportunities for the youth and enhance ease of mobility for urban residents.

Road Infrastructure

• 3,500 km of National Highway works in Tamil Nadu at an investment of Rs 1.03 lakh crore. These include the Madurai-Kollam corridor, Chittoor-Thatchur corridor. Construction will start next year.
• 1,100 km of National Highway works in Kerala at an investment of Rs 65,000 crore including 600 km section of Mumbai-Kanyakumari corridor in Kerala.
• 675 km of highway works in West Bengal at a cost of Rs 25,000 crores including upgradation of existing Kolkata – Siliguri road.
• National Highway works of around Rs 19,000 crore are currently in progress in Assam. Further works of more than Rs 34,000 crore covering more than 1,300 km of National Highways will be undertaken in the State in the coming three years.

Roads and Highways

Some flagship corridors and other important projects that would see considerable activity in 2021-22 are:

• Delhi-Mumbai Expressway: Remaining 260 km will be awarded before 31.3.2021
• Bengaluru – Chennai Expressway: 278 km will be initiated in the current financial year. Construction will begin in 2021-22
• Delhi-Dehradun economic corridor: 210 km corridor will be initiated in the current financial year. Construction will begin in 2021-22
• Kanpur-Lucknow Expressway:  63 km expressway providing an alternate route to NH 27 will be initiated in 2021-22
• Chennai – Salem corridor: 277 km expressway will be awarded and construction would start in 2021-22
• Raipur-Vishakhapatnam: 464 km passing through Chhattisgarh, Odisha, and North Andhra Pradesh will be awarded in the current year. Construction will start in 2021-22
• Amritsar-Jamnagar: Construction will commence in 2021-22
• Delhi –Katra: Construction will commence in 2021-22
• Advanced Traffic management system with speed radars, variable message signboards, GPS enabled recovery vans will be installed in all new four and six-lane highways.